About Tim Burt

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Do you ever feel like life’s not fair? If I think back to when I heard that the most in my life, I remember it coming at times from the mouth of my children. It’s funny how close children look for fair from mom and dad when dealing with their siblings. They are watching and they do want to make sure that everyone gets the same thing when it comes to good, yet want special grace when they are being punished. As most every parent that has small children knows, fair is law! “Mom, Johnny got 13 Skittles and I only got 12! – That’s not fair!”

Prior to having children, my thought of being fair was probably more aligned with my children’s – exact equal treatment! But then I became a parent and reality reshaped Renee and my thinking. We matured and realized that our children were not clones, but four unique individuals with separate personalities, all different and needing different things from us. We had to balance fair accordingly. Some needed more discipline. Some needed more help. Some deserved greater rewards as they had to work harder to achieve.

I share this to say that we treated each one of our children differently and that could be perceived as unfair. It wasn’t. We were fair while being consistent in giving love. They are all wired differently and needed to be dealt with according to their personality and response.

People often think God isn’t fair. One of the reasons is because some people have so much and others seem to have so little. That doesn’t seem fair. Bad things seem to happen to good people. That doesn’t seem fair. The world does not understand that there is a devil, he is evil and hates mankind, and is behind the evil in the world. God is not! God can’t just zap evil because then he’d have to zap those that have been contaminated with evil and have some evil in them. That would be all of mankind.

Not only is God not unfair, but He is merciful and full of grace! God’s grace is available to each of us to help us navigate life and succeed at a higher level than we could imagine. But, we have to have faith in God’s grace – His supernatural help, and we have to put forth sincere effort while leaning on His grace to help us. Hebrews 4:16 (NLT) “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”God is perfectly just. No one gets away with anything although God is much more graceful to the humble because of their repentant attitude than the prideful that He resists. Psalms 103:10 says, “He does not punish us for all our sins; He does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.”

We can count on God being just. We can know that no matter what a situation looks like, God keeps the books and He is the perfectly fair judge and jury. Because of that, instead of focusing on and being burdened by the compulsion for fairness and justice of situations that are beyond our reach or involvement, we should focus on God being the judge and leaving those concerns of injustice at His feet through prayer. God will manage them and your prayers will be effectual. He is gracious and will do the right thing and you can trust that.

God is just. He knows just how to deal with each of us. Leave it to Him and move on. You have got way too much to do to be distracted over “what’s fair.”

Psalms 71:6-8 & 16 (NLT) "Yes, you have been with me from birth; from my mother’s womb you have cared for me. No wonder I am always praising you! My life is an example to many, because you have been my strength and protection. That is why I can never stop praising you; I declare your glory all day long. But I will keep on hoping for your help; I will praise you more and more. I will tell everyone about your righteousness. All day long I will proclaim your saving power, though I am not skilled with words. I will praise your mighty deeds, O Sovereign Lord. I will tell everyone that you alone are just."